On the Outer Courts, a 'Faith-Based Thing' Goes Down

WASHINGTON — Up in the Commonwealth (God Save It!), a federal judge named Richard Stearns gave the clan of ther red beanie a good kick in the thuribles this week. The crux of Stearnss' decision is that the bishops can take the taxpayer's money, but they can't discriminate with it, and they can't gussy up their bigotry withj Scripture in order to do that:

"To insist that the government respect the separation of church and state is not to discriminate against religion; indeed, it promotes a respect for religion by refusing to single out any creed for official favor at the expense of all others...This case is about the limits of the government's ability to delegate to a religious institution the right to use taxpayer money to impose its beliefs on others (who may or may not share them)."

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In other words, your Presbyterian janitor doesn't have to abide by your batshit opinions on contraception, lads. And the threat this decision poses to all "faith-based" — Lord, what a gutless descriptive that is — services reminds me of the great anecdote in David Kuo's book when Kuo, then working in the Bush White House as an outreach aide to religious organizations, was summoned into the office of Karl Rove. "Get me a fucking faith-based thing," Rove reportedly told him. Considering that what was at issue here was the bishops' refusing to supply victims of sex-trafficking with information about contraception and aboriton, I'd say that a fucking faith-based thing is pretty much what this was all about.